After my short stay in Kenya which enabled me to have a view of the pleasant city of Nairobi and its National Park, I go on board a British Airways aircraft which soon lands in Mahé, the main Seychelles island, on the 12th of September. The following day, in the evening, I write: ‘The plane was enormous, with 10 seats and 2 corridors widthways. It came from London and was going to Mauritius. (…) When we arrived, they sprayed insecticide to avoid « contaminating Seychelles mosquitoes with paludism ». (…) Here, there is no exchange control, I’ll declare the money I’ll still have when I come back to Kenya, then to Ethiopia, without any problem’. I had planned two possible accomodation solutions, but neither will succeed and eventually I find a guest house, “Le Niol”, offering a room with breakfast and dinner provided, which is ‘allright, welcoming and not too expensive’, in a pleasant nook inside the island. ‘Where I’m staying, they do excellent creole cooking, with a lot of rice and fish’.

‘I went sightseeing a lot to-day [13 Sept.], by bus and on foot. [The buses are lorries whose open platform is converted and fitted out with seats.] I walked thirty good kilometres, so I have decided to hire a car to-morrow. Only to-morrow, because it’s pretty expensive. When I saw the nice convertible brightly-coloured small cars , I felt like having one at once. So I’ll be able to visit the whole island without getting unnecessarily tired. (…) There are several roads on Mahé island, which is hardly 30 km long and 6 km wide. Many of them follow the gorgeous coast, which is bordered with coconut and palm trees… Those roads are narrow and winding, but good. One drives on the left, like in Kenya. The official language is English but French is known as well, the natives using Creole [a dialect looking like French] to talk to each other. (…) The capital city of Seychelles is Victoria, on [the east coast of] Mahé island. It’s a very small town, but very picturesque and very clean. In the “centre”, there is a silvery replica of London’s Big Ben, much scaled down’. (photo above) Seychelles has been independent since 1976 and is a republic within the Commonwealth.

A market in Victoria. Sea food is a king here, of course. There is a French Embassy in the small capital. I have my leave title stamped here, which I’ll give back at the Embassy in Addis, when I go home.

Voici l’enveloppe de la lettre dont j’ai cité des extraits plus haut.

Here is the envelope of the letter from which I quoted extracts above.

On Sept. 14 at 8.30 AM, I hire this small car in Victoria and I’ll keep it for 24 hours. It’s a Mini Moke, which will enable me to go round the whole Mahé island easily and pleasantly. I’m lucky enough to enjoy very fine weather to-day, like yesterday and as for the whole stay actually.

The freedom the car brings enables me to photograph as I wish. I write that ‘this island is fringed with coconut trees and covered in forests, one can’t find more “tropical”. It’s a real small paradise’.

The Seychelles inhabitants are nice but some of them have a particular way to hitch-hike: they don’t hesitate to cross the road in front of you to block the way of your car and stop the vehicle, and then to get in at once, saying ‘Give me a lift’. It happened to me once during the day.

A few minutes later, the light has changed. After the day star sinking, the night falls quickly, for the Seychelles are very close to the equator. I come back to my friendly guest house where good fish with curried rice is waiting for me. PART 15